Artist and Writer Neal McLeod speaks in Art Now March 6, Recital Hall at 12 noon

Friday, March 6, 2009 - 5:00am - 6:00am

Event Location:

Recital Hall 12:00 noon March 6, 2009

Neal McLeod is an art historian, painter, poet and filmmaker and is from the James Smith Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan. McLeod teaches Indigenous studies at Trent University and for the previous ten years at the First Nations University of Canada, Regina. He received a BA and MA from the University of Saskatchewan, and Ph.D. from the University of Regina. His research interests include: Cree culture and history, oral history, Indigenous narratives and literature, Indigenous art, Indigenous philosophy and religion, Indigenous political history and the history of Indigenous people of western Canada. Nebraska University Press publication of his dissertation Exploring Cree Narrative Memory is in process.

McLeod’s paintings blend traditional Cree iconography and narrative, with modern impulses and figurative work and this work has been exhibited extensively in western Canada as well as Europe. In addition to painting, his first book of poetry Songs to Kill a Wîhtikow was nominated for three Saskatchewan book awards and he is presently working on his second book of poetry entitled Gabriel’s Beach. His recent film A Man Called Horst, Fair-Skinned Indians Production, received national coverage and has been shown at Urban Shaman Gallery, Winnipeg, Humboldt University, Berlin and Trier University, Germany; and dissects the German "obsession" with "Indians." McLeod was a performer in the comedy troupe, “The Fair Skinned Indians” and was the leading force behind The Crowhop Café, a forum for Aboriginal entertainment and also the venue for his comedy group, the Bionic Bannock Boys.